Upgrading my video card.

Elimination

Ok so i currently am using an XFX Geforce 9800GTX (from when it first came out.) and i've been wanting to switch to ATI, i used to be a big ATI guy but im not particularly biased anymore as they both seem to have pros and cons these days, i will say i have enjoyed the PhysX properties in the few games that support it.

I am happy with my current card, it seems to run pretty much everything still at highest settings other than a few select things. The thing is the rest of my PC is upgraded and now my weakest link is literally my vid card.
I am not looking for stuff that is top of the line and $700 here, i am looking for the sub $300 range if possible, the most bang for my buck so to speak.

I'd prefer to go ATI this time around as they seem to have better values from what i have seen. I've got a quad core AMD, 6gigs of DDR2, (2 matched pairs. ) , 650 Watt PSU, and i am running Win7. I've been looking at some of the DX11 cards but honestly they dont seem to really be all that appealing for their current prices. I've been looking so far at this card and this card.

But i would really like some suggestions? I dont want a debate of ATI vs Nvidia or anything like that, and feel free to mention both companies cards if the deal is there and you think it's worth it.

krapst78

If you don't need DX11 and you're going for straight performance, then the 4890 will give you the best bang for your buck in the $200-$300 range. It also depends on what resolution you run at but at resolutions under 2560*1600 it pretty beats the more expensive Nvidia gtx275 in most games. You'd have to move up to the gtx285 to trump the performance of the 4890, and that card is definitely over $300.

edit: Here's a link to the anandtech article where they compare the 4890 to the gtx275

Stormwatcher

I don't see the point in upgrading a 9800 for a gpu without DX11. Might as well get the new hotness. The 5850 is supposed to be awesome.

Otherwise, he should wait until the 5870s are cheaper. It's not really a good time to upgrade a GPU that's already decent.

Elimination

Stormwatcher wrote: »

I don't see the point in upgrading a 9800 for a gpu without DX11. Might as well get the new hotness. The 5850 is supposed to be awesome.

Otherwise, he should wait until the 5870s are cheaper. It's not really a good time to upgrade a GPU that's already decent.

Well it feels like my 9800GTX is going into the realm of obsolete. I got it when they were first released which was a while back now. I mean i guess it does everything i need it to do, but the DX 11 cards are just too much money for their power. The higher end 4k series ATI's look really nice for their price on the other hand. I havn't even seen a game that uses DX11 yet.

Stormwatcher

Elimination wrote: »

Stormwatcher wrote: »

I don't see the point in upgrading a 9800 for a gpu without DX11. Might as well get the new hotness. The 5850 is supposed to be awesome.

Otherwise, he should wait until the 5870s are cheaper. It's not really a good time to upgrade a GPU that's already decent.

Well it feels like my 9800GTX is going into the realm of obsolete. I got it when they were first released which was a while back now. I mean i guess it does everything i need it to do, but the DX 11 cards are just too much money for their power. The higher end 4k series ATI's look really nice for their price on the other hand. I havn't even seen a game that uses DX11 yet.

It "feels" like it's going obsolete? Dirt2 is DX11 btw, and other dx11 games were announced.

I really think it's a bad idea to upgrade from a good GPU to a not-that-much-better GPU that's not up to date. That's my definition of a bad upgrade.

But, hey, it's your money to burn, suit yourself.

GnomeTank

I agree with Stormwatcher, it's a terrible time to upgrade your GPU if you already have a passable solution (which the 9800GTX is). Put your 300 bucks away and wait for the 5870's to come back down to earth (which they will as soon as the fabrication issues are worked out). Going to the 4890 now would be a performance upgrade, but I think you'd kick yourself in a year when you turn around and have to spend 300 bucks again on a DX11 card. DX11 won't be a DX10/10.1, it will catch on (and already is/has). You'll starting seeing the first crop of serious DX11 games by the middle/end of next year.

If you can muster the patience to hold off until the spring, you can get a 5870 for a reasonable price and have a card that's going to last you several years.

Elimination

GnomeTank wrote: »

I agree with Stormwatcher, it's a terrible time to upgrade your GPU if you already have a passable solution (which the 9800GTX is). Put your 300 bucks away and wait for the 5870's to come back down to earth (which they will as soon as the fabrication issues are worked out). Going to the 4890 now would be a performance upgrade, but I think you'd kick yourself in a year when you turn around and have to spend 300 bucks again on a DX11 card. DX11 won't be a DX10/10.1, it will catch on (and already is/has). You'll starting seeing the first crop of serious DX11 games by the middle/end of next year.

If you can muster the patience to hold off until the spring, you can get a 5870 for a reasonable price and have a card that's going to last you several years.

Hmm maybe you guys are right, i was thinking DX11 would be like DX10 which didnt really even get used in most games, and when it did the difference was marginal at best.

Stormwatcher

Elimination wrote: »

GnomeTank wrote: »

I agree with Stormwatcher, it's a terrible time to upgrade your GPU if you already have a passable solution (which the 9800GTX is). Put your 300 bucks away and wait for the 5870's to come back down to earth (which they will as soon as the fabrication issues are worked out). Going to the 4890 now would be a performance upgrade, but I think you'd kick yourself in a year when you turn around and have to spend 300 bucks again on a DX11 card. DX11 won't be a DX10/10.1, it will catch on (and already is/has). You'll starting seeing the first crop of serious DX11 games by the middle/end of next year.

If you can muster the patience to hold off until the spring, you can get a 5870 for a reasonable price and have a card that's going to last you several years.

Hmm maybe you guys are right, i was thinking DX11 would be like DX10 which didnt really even get used in most games, and when it did the difference was marginal at best.

well, DX10 was not that big, but DX11 is supposed to be. Like 9.

And well, I'd rather have the latest DX, anyway, LOTRO looks awesome with it on.

Scrublet

I'm beginning a build right now, just ordered a PSU and case is up next. My current system is similar to yours...I have a 7900GT from when they came out. I will be building with the 5870. I know it seems like the 5870 or other DX11 cards aren't worth the money since there aren't any games but if you're still using a 7900 that means you like to buy relatively high up and then keep it for awhile. So two years from now when DX11 is all over the place, are you gonna be happy you saved that $100 for the DX10-limited card?

lowlylowlycook

I guess that depends on whether we get back to the point where a decent gaming card is only $100 or less.

subedii

So what exactly is supposed to be so good about DX11? I haven't really been keeping up on it.

I mean from my own perspective, games aren't really likely to be pushing DX11 this generation largely because the console market is still on DX9, and will remain that way until the next generation. And that won't be for a while yet. Any additions using DX11 would largely be pretty superficial, along the lines of the DX10 stuff added to games. It gets applied to the surface but doesn't make too much of a visual difference.

What changes is DX11 actually bringing, and how significant are they? Is it going to streamline performance? Dynamic pipelines, that sort of thing?

GnomeTank

The big DirectX 11 improvements are hardware tessellation support (this is going to be big in the next generation of engines), better multi-core/multi-GPU support (much better in fact), and DirectCompute, which finally gives us a ubiquitous API for doing general computing tasks on the GPU. For games, it means developers can start moving things like physics to the GPU, without having to tie themselves to a vendor proprietary API. It's basically Microsoft's Cuda, with game applications involved.

DirectX 11 is a much closer API to DirectX 9 than 10 was. I always think of DirectX 10/10.1 just like I do DirectX 8/8.1. Very few games actually targeted those versions, they either targeted DirectX 7 or later DirectX 9. DirectX 8 and 8.1 were almost like experimental releases, to get some really cutting edge stuff out there. That's what DX 10/10.1 were, and DX 11 is going to take all of that and wrap it up in to a much more streamlined API. With the 11on9 technology that's built in as well (the capability to emulated many DX11 features on DX9 cards), it's almost certain that DX11 will catch on as the next major Windows graphics API.

Also, the assertion that PC games won't use DX11 because consoles are DX9 is sort of misleading. First off, the XBox 360 is not actually DirectX 9. The API is very, very similar, but you can't just take a stock DX9 rendering engine and make it work on the 360, it will require tweaks. Second, the PS3 is not even remotely close to any kind of DX API. Developers are already used to having two or three rendering engines for their game.

Elimination

Scrublet wrote: »

I'm beginning a build right now, just ordered a PSU and case is up next. My current system is similar to yours...I have a 7900GT from when they came out. I will be building with the 5870. I know it seems like the 5870 or other DX11 cards aren't worth the money since there aren't any games but if you're still using a 7900 that means you like to buy relatively high up and then keep it for awhile. So two years from now when DX11 is all over the place, are you gonna be happy you saved that $100 for the DX10-limited card?

Where did you get the idea i am using a 7900? Im using a 9800GTX

victor_c26

I'm also getting kind of antsy.

I've got an 8800GT single slot card, and am drooling at the possibility of getting an HD5850.

Either that or more memory as I've still got a 2 GB kit of Corsair Memory. I want to get a 4GB kit, but I'm still stuck on 32bit Vista.

This doesn't help the fact that I want to buy a car as well, but that's something for another discussion.

Elimination

victor_c26 wrote: »

I'm also getting kind of antsy.

I've got an 8800GT single slot card, and am drooling at the possibility of getting an HD5850.

Either that or more memory as I've still got a 2 GB kit of Corsair Memory. I want to get a 4GB kit, but I'm still stuck on 32bit Vista.

This doesn't help the fact that I want to buy a car as well, but that's something for another discussion.

Yeah for me i've already got a good quad core, and 6gb of decent ram, Win7 Ultimate 64. Only things i want now are another HDD and a new vid card....maybe its just impatience driving me.

Fats

and DirectCompute, which finally gives us a ubiquitous API for doing general computing tasks on the GPU. For games, it means developers can start moving things like physics to the GPU, without having to tie themselves to a vendor proprietary API. It's basically Microsoft's Cuda, with game applications involved.

We already have this, it's called OpenCL. What does DirectCompute bring to the table?